According to the bearing capacity computations' theory, which of the following criteria are used for estimating the allowable bearing capacity of soils?

Option 2 : Settlement and shear failure

Explanation:

Criteria for Estimating the Allowable Bearing Capacity of Soils:

There are two basic design criteria as follows:

• One is the bearing capacity criteria or the shear failure criteria another is the settlement criteria. When we design the footing, it should take the load coming from the superstructure without shear cracking.
• At the same time there should not be an excessive amount of settlement in the footing. So the pressure that we can apply on soil is the minimum pressure on soil in terms of shear criteria or in terms of the settlement criteria.
• Tension failure, compression failure, or bond failure hardly occur in foundation structures and are never a serious concern.

Hence, The correct answer is shear failure and settlement.